This Primitive Humanlike Species May Have Walked With Our Ancestors

May 10, 2017 - When early Homo sapiens lived in Africa, they may have had another humanlike species for neighbors. Fossils of Homo naledi, a hominin discovered in 2013 at a cave site near Johannesburg, South Africa, have been dated to at most 335,000 years old. Earlier estimates had suggested the fossils, which share features with older human relatives, could date back one million years or more. The new findings mean that these individuals belonged to a branch of our genus that had split off from our ancestors, surviving alongside them. National Geographic Explorer Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa shares his thoughts about the work his team has done to recover the Homo naledi fossils, remains that may have been deliberately interred by others of their species. Video courtesy University of the WitwatersrandREAD: Did This Mysterious Ape-Human Once Live Alongside Our Ancestors?

This Primitive Humanlike Species May Have Walked With Our Ancestors

May 10, 2017 - When early Homo sapiens lived in Africa, they may have had another humanlike species for neighbors. Fossils of Homo naledi, a hominin discovered in 2013 at a cave site near Johannesburg, South Africa, have been dated to at most 335,000 years old. Earlier estimates had suggested the fossils, which share features with older human relatives, could date back one million years or more. The new findings mean that these individuals belonged to a branch of our genus that had split off from our ancestors, surviving alongside them. National Geographic Explorer Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa shares his thoughts about the work his team has done to recover the Homo naledi fossils, remains that may have been deliberately interred by others of their species. Video courtesy University of the WitwatersrandREAD: Did This Mysterious Ape-Human Once Live Alongside Our Ancestors?